AN INQUIRY INTO THE PRESENT STATE OF POLITE LEARNING. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. Ir has been so long the practice to represent literature as declining, that every renewal of this complaint now comes with diminished influence. The public has been so often excited by a false alarm, that at present the nearer we approach the threatened period of decay, the more our security increases. the symptoms, to investigate the causes, and How far the writer is equal to such an undertaking, the reader must determine : yet perhaps his observations may be just, though his manner of expressing them should only serve as an example of the errors he undertakes to reprove. Novelty, however, is not permitted to usurp the place of reason; it may attend, but shall not conduct the inquiry. But it should be observed, that the more original any perfor It will now probably be said, that, taking the decay of genius for granted, as I do, argues either resentment or partiality. The writer possessed of fame, it may be asserted, is willing to enjoy it without a rival, by les-mance is, the more it is liable to deviate; for sening every competitor: or, if unsuccessful, cautious stupidity is always in the right. he is desirous to turn upon others the contempt which is levelled at himself; and being convicted at the bar of literary justice, hopes for pardon by accusing every brother of the same profession. CHAPTER II. CLINE OF LEARNING. Sensible of this, I am at a loss where to THE CAUSES WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEfind an apology for persisting to arraign the merit of the age; for joining in a cry which the judicious have long since left to be kept up by the vulgar and for adopting the sentiments of the multitude, in a performance that at best can please only a few : If we consider the revolutions which have happened in the commonwealth of letters, survey the rapid progress of learning in one period of antiquity, or its amazing decline in Complaints of degeneracy in literature, as another, we shall be almost induced to accuse well as in morals, I own, have been frequently nature of partiality; as if she had exhausted exhibited of late, but seem to be enforced all her efforts in adorning one age, while_she more with the ardour of devious declamation | left the succeeding entirely neglected. It is than the calmness of deliberate inquiry. The not to nature, however, but to ourselves alone, dullest critic, who strives at a reputation for delicacy, by showing he cannot be pleased, may pathetically, assure us, that our taste is upon the decline; may consign every modern performance to oblivion, and bequeath nothing to posterity, except the labours of our ancestors, or his own. Such general invective, however, conveys no instruction; all it teaches is, that the writer dislikes an age by which he is probably disregarded. The manner of being useful on the subject would be, to point out that this partiality must be ascribed: the seeds of excellence are sown in every age, and it is wholly owing to a wrong direction in the passions or pursuits of mankind, that they have not received the proper cultivation. As in the best regulated societies, the very laws which at first give the government solidity, may in the end contribute to its dissolution, so the efforts which might have promoted learning in its feeble commencement, may, if continued, retard its progress. The paths of science, which were at first intricate because | sympathizes with its political struggles, and is untrodden, may at last grow toilsome, because annihilated in its dissolution. too much frequented. As learning advances, But permanence in a state is not sufficient; the candidates for its honours become more it is requisite also for this end that it should numerous, and the acquisition of fame more be free. Naturalists assure us, that all animals uncertain the modest may despair of attain-are sagacious in proportion as they are removing it, and the opulent think it too precarious to pursue. Thus the task of supporting the honour of the times may at last devolve on indigence and effrontery, while learning must partake of the contempt of its professors. To illustrate these assertions, it may be proper to take a slight review of the decline of ancient learning; to consider how far its depravation was owing to the impossibility of supporting continued perfection; in what respects it proceeded from voluntary corruption; and how far it was hastened on by accident. If modern learning be compared with ancient, in these different lights, a parallel between both, which has hitherto produced only vain dispute, may contribute to amusement, perhaps to instruction. We shall thus be enabled to perceive what period of antiquity the present age most resembles, whether we are making advances towards excellence, or retiring again to primeval obscurity; we shall thus be taught to acquiesce in those defects which it is impossible to prevent, and reject all faulty innovations, though offered under the specious titles of improvement. Learning when planted in any country, is transient and fading; nor does it flourish till slow gradations of improvement have natural ized it to the soil. It makes feeble advances, begins among the vulgar, and rises into reputation among the great. It cannot be established in a state at once, by introducing the learned of other countries; these may grace a court, but seldom enlighten a kingdom. Ptolemy Philadelphus, Constantine Porphyrogeneta, Alfred, or Charlemagne, might have invited learned foreigners into their dominions, but could not establish learning. While in the radiance of royal favour, every art and science seemed to flourish; but when that was withdrawn, they quickly felt the rigours of a strange climate, and with exotic constitutions perished by neglect. ed from the tyranny of others. In native liberty, the elephant is a citizen, and the beaver an architect; but whenever the tyrant man intrudes upon their community, their spirit is broken, they seem anxious only for safety, and their intellects suffer an equal diminution with their prosperity. The parallel will hold with regard to mankind. naturally represses invention,-benevolence, ambition; for in a nation of slaves, as in the despotic governments of the East, to labour after fame is to be a candidate for danger. Fear To attain literary excellence also, it is requisite that the soil and climate should, as much as possible, conduce to happiness. The earth must supply man with the necessaries of life, before he has leisure or inclination to pursue more refined enjoyments. The climate also must be equally indulgent; for in too warm a region the mind is relaxed into languor, and by the opposite excess is chilled into torpid inactivity. These are the principle advantages which tend to the improvement of learning and all these were united in the states of Greece and Rome. We must now examine what hastens, or prevents its decline. Those who behold the phenomena of nature, and content themselves with the view, without inquiring into their causes, are perhaps wiser than is generally imagined. In this manner our rude ancestors were acquainted with facts; and Poetry, which helped the imagination and the memory, was thought the most proper vehicle for conveying their knowledge to posterity. It was the poet who harmonized the ungrateful accents of his native dialect, who lifted it above common conversation, and shaped its rude combinations into order. From him the orator formed a style; and though poetry first rose out of prose, in turn it gave birth to every prosaic excellence. As the arts and sciences are slow in coming Musical period, concise expression, and delito maturity, it is requisite, in order to their cacy of sentiment were all excellencies derived perfection, that the state should be permanent from the poet; in short, he not only proceedwhich gives them reception. There are num-ed, but formed the orator, philosopher, and berless attempts without success, and experiments without conclusion, between the first rudiments of an art, and its utmost perfection; between the outlines of a shadow, and the picture of an Apelles. Leisure is required to go through the tedious interval, to join the experience of predecessors to our own, or enlarge our views, by building on the ruined attempts of former adventurers. All this may be performed in a society of long continuance, but if the kingdom be but of short duration, as was the case of Arabia, learning seems coeval, historian. When the observations of past ages were collected, philosophy next began to examine their causes. She had numberless facts from which to draw proper inferences, and poetry had taught her the strongest expression to enforce them. Thus the Greek philosophers, for instance, exerted all their happy talents in the investigation of truth, and the production of beauty. They saw that there was more excellence in captivating the judgment, than in raising a momentary astonishment. In their arts, they imitated only such parts of | sion; that the observations of others are soon nature as might please in the representation; forgotten, those made by ourselves are permain the sciences, they cultivated such parts of nent and useful. But it seems, understandknowledge as it was every man's duty to ings of every size were to be mechanically know. Thus learning was encouraged, pro- instructed in poetry. If the reader was too tected, honoured, and in its turn adorned, dull to relish the beauties of Virgil, the comstrengthened, and harmonized the community. ment of Servius was ready to brighten his But as the mind is vigorous and active, and imagination; if Terence could not raise him experiment is dilatory and painful, the spirit to a smile, Evantius was at hand, with a longof philosophy being excited, the reasoner, winded scholium to increase his titillation. when destitute of experiment, had recourse to Such rules are calculated to make blockheads theory, and gave up what was useful for re- talk, but all the lemmata of the Lyceum are finement. unable to give him feeling. Critics, sophists, grammarians, rhetoricians, But it would be endless to recount all the and commentators, now begin to figure in the absurdities which were hatched in the schools literary commonwealth. In the dawn of sci- of those specious idlers; be it sufficient to say, ence such are generally modest, and not en- that they increased as learning improved, tirely useless. Their performances serve to but swarmed on its decline. It was then that mark the progress of learning, though they every work of taste was buried in long comseldom contribute to its improvement. But ments, every useful subject in morals was disas nothing but speculation was required in tinguished away into casuistry, and doubt and making proficients in their respective depart-subtlety characterized the learning of the age. ments, so neither the satire nor the contempt Metrodorus, Valerius Probus, Aulus Gellius, of the wise, though Socrates was of the num- Pedianus, Boethius, and a hundred others, ber, nor the laws levelled at them by the state, to be acquainted with whom might show much though Cato was in the legislature, could pre-reading, and but little judgment; these, I say, vent their approaches. * Possessed of all the advantages of unfeeling dullness, laborious, insensible, and persevering, they still proceeded mending and mending every work of genius, or, to speak without irony, undermining all that was polite and useful. Libraries were loaded, but not enriched, with their labours, while the fatigues of reading their explanatory comments was tenfold that which might suffice for understanding the original, and their works effectually increased our application, by professing to remove it. Against so obstinate and irrefragable an enemy, what could avail the unsupported sallies of genius, or the opposition of transitory resentment? In short they conquered by persevering, claimed the right of dictating upon every work of taste, sentiment, or genius, and, at last, when destitute of other employment, like the supernumerary domestics of the great, made work for each other. They now took upon them to teach poetry to those who wanted genius; and the power of disputing, to those who knew nothing of the subject in debate. It was observed how some of the most admired poets had copied nature. From these they collected dry rules, dignified with long names, and such were obtruded upon the public for their improvement. Common sense would be apt to suggest, that the art might be studied to more advantage, rather by imitation than precept. It might suggest that those rules were collected, not from nature, but a copy of nature, and would consequently give us still fainter resemblances of original beauty. It might still suggest, that explained wit makes but a feeble impres * Vide Sueton. Hist. Gram.. made choice each of an author, and delivered all their load of learning on his back. Shame to our ancestors! many of their works have reached our times entire, while Tacitus him. self has suffered mutilation. In a word, the commonwealth of literature was at last wholly overrun by these studious triflers. Men of real genius were lost in the multitude, or, as in a world of fools it were folly to aim at being an only exception, obliged to conform to every prevailing absurdity of the times. Original productions seldom appeared, and learning, as if grown superannuated, bestowed all its panegyric upon the vigour of its youth, and turned encomiast upon its former achievements. It is to these, then, that the depravation of ancient polite learning is principally to be ascribed. By them it was separated from common sense, and made the proper employment of speculative idlers. Men bred up among books, and seeing nature only by reflection, could do little, except hunt after perplexity and confusion. The public, therefore, with reason rejected learning, when thus rendered barren, though voluminous; for we may be assured, that the generality of mankind never lose a passion for letters, while they continue to be either amusing or useful. It was such writers as these, that rendered learning unfit for uniting and strengthening civil society, or for promoting the views of ambition. True philosophy had kept the Grecian states cemented into one effective body, more than any law for that purpose; and the Etrurian philosophy, which prevailed in the first ages of Rome, inspired those patriot virtues which paved the way to universal empire. But by the labours of commentators, when philosophy became abstruse, or triflingly |